Serenity Abandoned

“Serenity Abandoned”
By: MG / Shanibelle
Chapter Eight –
“Shocking”

I’ve decided to try and update this every week… I would greatly appreciate any reviews.

Disclaimer: You don’t know this? Check chapter one.

.-.-.


After a quiet breakfast, Hermione changed into a cardigan and jeans after being told that they would be in muggle London for most of the day. She wasn’t sure if they would need it or not, but decided to pack an overnight bag, Accio!ing a few of Draco’s clothes and putting them into a trunk that she also decided to put a few choice potions in with a couple of books (for if they were to journey somewhere for a long period of time) and Muggle money she kept with her at times.

Draco’s knock from her painting broke her of her doubts as to why she felt the need to bring all these things with her – for just in case, she decided as she shrunk the trunk and placed it into her pocket, next to her wand.

“Are you ready?” suddenly came Draco’s voice from behind her, from the bathroom.

She whirled around to face him, her lip sucked between her teeth to be chewed on, and her hands ran down her legs, unknowingly telling him that she was nervous, “Yeah, I think I’ve got everything squared away.”

He tilted his head softly, “It’s only an afternoon. Why so nervous?”

Because I’m going to be doing something with you. Alone. With you. Her mind replied. “You don’t think it odd for Dumbledore to be sending the Head Girl and Boy on an errand at such a far-fetched place?”

Draco seemed to ponder it over, “No. But then again, did you keep tabs on the Head Boy and Girl in the past? I’m sure they’ve done it loads of times.” At her silence, he sighed and rolled his eyes, “You’re worrying over nothing. Can we go now?”

She sighed back, “Fine. Yes, I’m ready to go.”

He nodded, “Good. We’re apparating there.” And walked towards her door, but stopped after walking through it and finding her not behind him, “What now?”

“No way can I apparate that far.”

A small grin appeared over his lips before he licked them and took a few steps closer to her – now once more inside her room, “Then you can be a side-along. I know where we’re going anyway. C’mon, let’s not be late.”

She nodded and started following him, knowing that they would have to be outside the school gates to be able to apparate. She just wished she had enough time to say goodbye to Harry and Ron. But that was silly – it was, afterall, just one afternoon.

He turned to her when they were finally there and offered his arm silently. Equally silent, she took it and they were gone with a faint ‘Pop’!

When the main street in Hogsmeade came into focus, Hermione wasn’t sure what all the commotion was about – and then she saw it. Or, rather, didn’t see the building that was supposed to be where the smoking rubble was now. Children were crying, witches were screaming and wizards were running towards the said building. It was chilling how chaotic the quiet town was.

“Hermione?!” Twin voices sounded and she turned from staring at the building to taking in the sight of Ron and Harry, utterly confused—not at the scene, but the fact that she was there.

“Harry! Ron!” She wasn’t sure how, but she had somehow lost Draco in the chaos and ran to her friends, needing to dodge a few people who ran in her way, and hugged them both tightly before asking what had happened.

Ron took on a grim face, “Death Eaters, it’s rumored.”

“But why are you here, Hermione?” Harry asked.

She sighed, not knowing how either of them were going to take this and hoping for the best, “Malfoy and I are doing something for Dumbledore in London – we were apparating…”

“Granger!” Malfoy practically yelled at what felt like right next to her ear, pulling her back a few feet. His hand felt hot against her arm, where he was still gripping it, “We need to go, now. Not much time –”

“Let go of her, now.” Harry’s voice had never been so controlled, so deep.

All three turned to look at him, surprised. Draco eyed him back, “Stay out of this Potter.”

“Not when it concerns my girlfriend.”

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah? Well, get over yourself. I don’t have time for your drama right now, Potter. I’ve got a missing informant and their information, along with The bloody Three Broomsticks, so if you don’t mind, shove off.” Hermione was sure that Draco could’ve died six times over with the look Harry was giving him.

“No.”

Ron suddenly butted in, “Hold on a sec – did you just say you were here to get information? On what, exactly? And why are you bringing Hermione?”

Malfoy sighed and once more rolled his eyes, “For a bloody-flippin’ operation for Dumbledore!”

Hermione stared at him, angry and confused, while Ron looked at him with pure amazement and Harry was still trying to glare a hole through his head, “Well, “ Ron replied while dipping a hand into his front pocket of his jeans, “I guess that I’m supposed to give this to you, then.” And offered a piece of paper to Draco.

Draco snatched it out of his hand quickly, muttering a, “Could’ve told me sooner, you git” as Hermione and Harry turned to look at Ron with confusion.

“What?” they simultaneously asked as Draco once more took a hold of her arm, getting her attention.

“Plans have changed. It’s going to be more than a day. We have to leave now.” He was serious.

She looked at him, studying him before turning to Ron and Harry, “Hold on. Ron, what are you doing with a piece of paper for Draco? And-” here she turned back to Draco, “-why did you say it’s an operation? How come you didn’t tell me? Why couldn’t I know?”

Draco sighed, stuffing the parchment into his pocket, “I’ll tell you when we get there.” And suddenly, instead of the chaos of Hogsmeade, they were in an ally, and she was being dragged into the chaos of downtown London.

“Malfoy! Where are we going? What’s happening? Why would Death Eaters attack The Three Broomsticks? What are we doing?” When she didn’t get an answer, she finally screeched, “Answer me!” And successfully ripped her arm out of his grip as a lightning bolt flashed and thunder rumbled overhead.

He came close to her as the rain started to fall, first a few drops here and there, and then they were in a downpour. His voice was deep when he began to talk, “We’re going to a hotel. The original plans for this weekend were intercepted; we’re now onto plan two. They attacked The Three Broomsticks because they thought I might be there – and I would’ve, if the gits could get their timing right. Hermione, just…” he sighed at the sight of her chattering teeth and miserable face, “come on, let’s go to the room. I’ll explain it more there. It’s not far.” He took his wand out and quickly transformed it into a common umbrella for them.

The sea of black umbrellas started to blur after the second block they walked and with a hand on her back, he directed her into a building, “This should help,” he bent down to mumble in her ear before whispering a warming spell on her as he folded the umbrella up, and she sighed, nodding a thank-you to him, looking around the foyer. It wasn’t a lavish hotel, but it wasn’t the worst, either.

She shivered the last of the cold off and followed Draco to the front desk, noticing him slightly looking around. She tried following his eyesight, but her attention was drawn elsewhere when they were greeted.

“Tad wet out there, eh?” the clerk asked cheerily.

She sworn her eyes were going to fall out of her head in shock as Draco smiled casually back to him, taking a wallet out of his pocket, “We’re going to be needing a room.”

They went through the formalities and felt relief flood her system when Malfoy requested a room with two beds.

“And your name, sir?” the concierge asked, a quick glance to Hermione before he moved to look at Draco and she hoped that the fear written on her face wasn’t obvious to him. Draco had to give a name, and it wasn’t prudent to use his own – it’d be like a giant, neon sign for the Death Eaters.

“Drake Ledger.” Ledger? Where did he get – she swiveled her head to look around the lobby of the hotel and her eyes stopped on a rather handsome looking bookcase. Bookcase, book, ledger. Gods, he was clever.

“Hey,” his voice made her head turn back to them, “C’mon.” She smiled softly at the concierge before following Draco to the stairs and down the hall until they were to the room. She let the door click closed before whipping her wand out and casting a quick drying spell on both of them as he transformed his wand back from taking on the shape of the umbrella.

“What the bloody hell is going on, Draco?” she asked, voice low.

He sighed, “I don’t know where to start.” She turned sharply, her eyes seeking his out.

“Start with the fact that The Three Broomsticks is abolished!” her voice raised to a shrill as he quickly cast a silencing spell on the room, “And that you blatantly lied to my face!” if she continued at the decibel she was at, her voice was soon going to give out, and she had lots more to say so she lowered it, but still kept it raised, “I learned long ago that you’re not a good human being – you lie, you cheat, you’re selfish, you’re spiteful and above all else, you’re cowardly and downright uncivilized – but I also believe that people have the uncanny ability to change, and from what I’ve observed from your behavior this year, you seemed to have broken free of the suppressive thoughts that your so-called blood,” she spat, “have brought you up to believe. Tell me that you have; that this isn’t a cruel trick to bring some sort of sick, masochistic, egocentric, vindictive entertainment to you.”

Her chest heaved after her spiel and Draco blinked wildly at her.

“Say something! Anything!” she yelled.

His voice was low, and he made sure to enunciate the word before moving on to the next, “How dare you.” His eyes were dark; his body was pulled taut, seeming to vibrate from the anger.

Her own anger stayed, warming her belly with its fire, but she felt a knot of fear develop somewhere in it and swallowed heavily, watching Draco watch her. She was sure that he knew she was afraid, if not at least intimidated by him at this point. She swallowed heavily once more as he continued.

“Why must you always have to know something?” he began, “Why is it that you must stick your nose in other people’s business? You’ve named off a few of my personality traits that aren’t to brag about, so why don’t we shed light on a few of yours?” His face took on his signature sneer and he took a few steps forward, towards her. The knot was increasingly taking over the fire of the anger in her stomach and turn it to ice. A shiver went down her spine and sent out goose pimples over her limbs as it crawled back up; he was in front of her now, and with the look he was giving her with his almost-black eyes, she wasn’t sure if he was going to hex her or kiss her. For some reason, she preferred the latter.

And then the cold was gone and it was replaced by searing heat, one that burned her cheeks red and made her chest heave for different reasons. Oh, good Lords. She just received a hot flash from thinking of being kissed. She was suddenly one of those girls in Lavender’s romance novels. She made sure to fully deny to herself that it was, indeed, the thought of kissing Draco that sent her blushing. She swallowed heavily for the third time.

“Let’s hear them, then.” Her mouth was suddenly dry as his eyes turned darker and he growled as he paced away from her before throwing his arms in the air with another growl.

“You’re infuriating! You always have to know everything! Why can’t someone else know something for a change? Know something that you don’t know? Or if you do fucking know it, then keep your bloody trap shut for two minutes! Why is that so much to ask?” he bellowed, once more stalking to stand in front of her, his voice lowering again, “You are the one who looks down on people in disgust. You’re the hypocrite, Hermione. You don’t think yourself high-and-mighty because of blood ties or because of earnings; you look down on them all for not being insufferable know-it-alls like you.” Her lips trembled as tears flowed from her eyes, “And most of all, and I want you to remember this for a very long time… you bring more attention to evil instead of good. You focus on it, and you twist it and you… you let it take over when there’s a whole lot of good that you could be concentrating on.” He sighed as she bit her lip to keep from crying out a sob, “For being a know-it-all, you know nothing.” And then she watched as he turned and walked out of the room.

She crumbled to the carpet as she tried to forget his very hurtful, very truthful words.

---------


Two hours had passed and he still hadn’t returned. Hermione had tried to keep herself busy; she took the trunk out of her pocket and returned it to normal size, taking a book out and trying to read it, but only successfully ended up reading the same sentence more times than she would admit. She tried watching the telly, only to flip channels, uninterested. She finally ended up locking herself in the bathroom and soaking away Draco’s words in a hot bubble bath.

Half-way into it, and feeling slightly better, she heard the door open and close, followed by a sigh.

He knocked on the closed door, “Granger, you in there?” his voice sounded tight through the door. She didn’t move, she didn’t breathe. Maybe he’ll just go away.

Another knock, “Granger?” It was raised a bit. More silence.

“Hermione?” came his loud voice from the other side and he jiggled the doorknob. She heard him mutter the unlocking spell and he burst in, eyes wild with worry and he blinked down at her form, covered by bubbles, all with the exception of her shoulders to the top of her head. His eyes once more traveled to the bubbles and back to her eyes. Her heart thudded into her ribcage.

“Uhh…” he breathed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of it. She slowly breathed out.

“Get out.”

“I just--” he began.

“You can say it through the door. Please, close it.” He closed it… but he wasn’t on the side that she preferred him on. He closed the lid to the toilet and sat, watching as her pupils grew.

He swallowed again, once more gaining Hermione’s attention to his throat, “I want you to see my face when I say this.” She closed her eyes against him, waiting for another fight. She scooted farther into the water, her painted toenails coming into view on the other side of the tub.

“My actions earlier were… rude and immature.” Her eyes shot over from watching her toes wriggle to stare largely at him, “to lash back at you like that was--well, it was quite mean. And if you would like to know what’s going on, I’ll explain.”

She fixed him with an odd look, scrutinizing him, “Who are you?”

It was his turn to give her the odd look, “Draco.”

She shook her head, “No, you’ve got to be… Harry? Ron? An alien? This isn’t Draco. You aren’t Draco. Draco Malfoy doesn’t spend time with me, doesn’t act civilized towards me. And he certainly doesn’t ask me to wash his back—he doesn’t ask anything out of me!--except for being a toy that he can play with cruelly.”

He blinked and rose an eyebrow at her, “You’d believe me to be an alien before you believed that I was myself? Like… an outer space alien?” his hand turned to point up at the ceiling, “Have you been hanging out with Lovegood?”

He managed to crack a smile out of her and she bit her lip, looking down at the bubbles before up at him, “Teach me the bubbles, then.”

His face took on a devilish smile, “You want my hand in your bathwater? And all this time, I took you for a prude. Alright then—” he made show of taking off his jacket and working his sleeves up.

“NO!” she shouted, scooting towards the wall, seeming to finally come to the realization that she was, in the tub… naked, “Uh… get out! You can teach me at the sink! Out! Now!”

“Ooh, the sink?” he asked, standing and opening the door, “The sink can be fun. What with the mirror—” he ducked behind the door as a mini bottle of shampoo flew at him and quickly peeked his head in again, “Now, now, Granger. We’re not quite at the level of the pleasures of pain.” He quickly closed the door, the sound of another bottle hitting the door making him grin.

-----

“N-no… not…” he chuckled softly, “Not quite like that, Hermione.” He laughed again as she once more popped the bubble, “You have to conform to it--”

“I am conforming to it!” She hissed at him, trying once more, still not able to succeed.

He laughed once more and ran more water into the sink, creating more bubbles, “Here, I’ll show you.” He took her hand and took in a strangled breath, hearing her gasp.

There was… something in her, underneath her skin; a prickly sort of something. Her heart rate sped up before she finally took her eyes away from the sink and looked towards Draco. He was already looking at her and she, if at all possible, gasped again.

“You can’t land my father in prison-”

“it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

“Weasley is our King!”

“They’re after Muggles. D' you want to be showing off your knickers in midair?”

“You actually fainted!”

“No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood.”

“--for not being insufferable know-it-alls like you.”


She finally wretched her hand out of his, breathing heavily and she looked down at her hand, the prickly feeling shriveling to her fingertips and dying there.

“What was that?” Draco asked, sounding equally breathless, “I mean… I-I saw… me, but I wasn’t me. I was… you. A-and I felt…”

Hermione nodded, still clutching her hand, “Me, too.”

He heaved with more breaths, “I think I need to sit.” And made his way over to one of the beds, sitting heavily at the foot of it, “Anything like that ever happen to you?” he asked.

She shook her head, mirroring his position on the other bed, “I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t caused by the bubbles, either.”

Silence followed her statement and their breathing quickly returned to normal, “Hey, where’d the trunk come from? And are those my clothes?”

-----

Ok, sorry to stop it there, but... we needed a funny ending somewhere in the story.

Thanks so much kazfeist for your review... Candied Lemons notwithstanding. :D

I'd love it if more of you would review! : )